Lunch session: Ticket to Ride

At lunch yesterday I managed to score 14 points in a game of Ticket
to Ride. I had a plan, and it was actually very fun (and tense)
trying to make it work, but needless to say, it didn't. I kept the
following 2 routes

LA to Miami
Vancouver to Montreal

My plan was to build across the US and then down the coasts, but
when players started building down the east and west coast early in
the game I decided to build down the coasts first and then connect
them. Well, I ran out of time and didn't get them connected. 2 20
point routes, neither of them connected... ouch.

Since there are only 80 points in the track, to an unaware observer,
it looked like I finished in the thick of it, of course I was lapped
by everyone.

Even though the results were terrible, it was very fun trying to
make it work. Obviously I won't try that plan again.

So, can anyone else beat 14?